Port Tobacco times, and Charles County advertiser., 1887-05-20
farmers' Column.
Give fools their gold ~ knaves their poWe
Let fortunes bubbles rise and fail;
Who sows a field or trains flower.
Or plants a tree. Is more than all.
Chemical Fertilizers.

Lime as fertilizer. Next to farm
yard manure as fertilizer, in the eye
of many farmer, come lime, which is
not good fertilizer. We frequently
hear farmers express themselves, "let
NE have plenty Of lime and am salts
fed" Unfortunately what satisfies
the farmer does not always satisfy the
field. Lime is nothing but stimu
liant. 1t stimulates the soil, decom
poses some mineral and organic mat
ter, which, in the form Of soluble salts
and gases, are made available for plant
structure. The actual manurial re-
suit of lime, is, indeed, very small land
scarcely worthy of consideration. No
matter how poor soil may be in other
elements, it always contains enough
of available lime to supply the wants
of innumerabie crops, and the constant
growing of plants is adding to the soil
much faster than it is exhausted
From eight to fifteen pounds of lime
to the acre is all that any of our farm
crops require, By this it Can be seen
that no permanent improvement can
be expected from the constant appli-
cation Of lime. Lime mixed with the
manure before putting it in the soil is
very bad practice, as the lime imme-
diately expels the actual ammonia IN
the manure, and acts as purifier in
etead of fertilizer. When the two
ingredients are to be used together, the
lime should be put on the soil and
plowed under, and the manure added
afterwards, so that they do not come
in such close contact. There are other
stimuiants used on soils, but in the
end they are harmful. Ali such stim-
ulaHts dissolve out of the earth its
richest mineral elements, leaving the
soil without materials to give struct
ure to the plants. By adding 100 to
$50 bushels of lime to the acre every
year, the land will soon be lined to
death.
Bone is the best fertilizer. The
question in the minds of the farmers
today is ''How can We obtain the larg
est crops and restore to the soil those
elements just carried off by the last
harvested crops? When we consider
that thirty-three bushels or one ton Of
wneat, or sixty bushels of corn, will
take from the soil, by their kernal a
lone,50 pounds of ammonia, 20 pounds
of phosphoric acid, and 16 pounds Of
potash, then we can see what an effort
it costs to restore to the soil its losses
with the ordinary means at the hands
Of the farmer. FarmYard manure, on
account of Its richness iu ammonia, is
probably the best agent in supplanting
these losses but when We think that
it only contains fourth Of one per
cent of ammonia, and one-ffth of one
per cent. Of phos osphoric acid, and scar
cely any potash, We must consider the
fact whether there is not something
better, cheaper and less bulky than
farmyard manure, and which at the
same time contains all the elements
necessary to plant structure. The
substitute is honestly dissolved ami
NAL bone fertilizers, rich in phosphor-
ic acid, ammonia and potash. Pure
raw animal bone contains % per cent.
dSios anu - W " pei OSDl
of ammonia. When dissolved with
say 400 pounds of concentrated sui
phuric acid, 66 per cent, its analysis
is as follows: Phosphoric acid, II to
19 per cent. ammonia, 4 to 4! per
cent. In the great stock raising coun-
tries, where there are more than six
million cattle slaughtered annually,
the bone, averaging about 50 pounds
to each bullock, is yet comparatively
cheap, and it allows manufacturers to
produce an absolutely pure bone fer
tilizer for from thirty TO thirty-three
dollars per ton, containing say 1900
pounds Of dissolved bone, 800 pounds
Of oxide of potassium, and 200 pounds
of ammonical salts, such as sulpnate
of ammonia, nitrate Of soda, azotine
etc. This makes, beyond doubt, the
best, cheapest and most lasting fertil-
izer. In England and other countries
the cost is almost double the price in
this country.-N Mem Ern.